The Morhekan Codex
The Morhekan Codex is a collection of works from the formation of the Morheka Sovereign-State. Though laid down before the formation of the Covenant, two additions were later made by a post-Covenant Kaidon, indicating that knowledge of the site survived for at least a short while - the Covenant Writ of Union was recorded for posterity, as was a plea from then-Kaidon Dego 'Morhekee not to forget the old ways entirely. Some of its contents were later used as the basis for much of the Covenant's theological doctrine, and although presumed destroyed for centuries, it is still in remarkable condition. Discovered recently near the Morhekan Quenyathar mountain range, the artefacts were discovered by peasant farmers. Human archaeological teams assisted Sangheili overseers in the uncovery of virtually thousands of relics, each containing precious information encoded within them by ancient scholars. Creation The Codex is actually comprised of approximately four hundred or more memory capsules, items derived from Forerunner relics long before the Covenant was formed. Such artefacts have been in use for many hundreds of years, but the Morhekan Codex is the earliest known usage of these devices. Relatively crude and primitive by modern Sangheili standards, they nevertheless accomplish their task - each was encoded with a collection of holographic images and animations, as well as audio messages for future discoverers. Various theories have been proposed as to why the Morhekans created the Codex. Some believe that the then-recent alliance between the Sangheili and the San'Shyuum threatened to erupt into a religious upheaval, with the contrasting phiolosophies tearing Sanghelios into a brutal civil war. This theory proposes that a sect of Sangheili priests encoded the sum of their knowledge and scattered it around their monastery to preserve their legacy for whoever found it. There is indeed a monastary in the middle of the site, well known by the local inhabitants, and still used by local Sangheili religious officials and used as a missionary station by the Cult of Quenyathar. But it was built many centuries after the Codex was laid down, and even the Monastary predates the Covenant. Another theory claims that the Mopad incursion approximately 600 years ago forced theologians and philosophers to preserve their knowledge from the invaders, who were intent on reducing Morheka to an abandoned wasteland after centuries of territorial disputes. The invaders specifically targetted scientific and religious sites, hoping to destroy Morhekan knowledge and history, perhaps to erase the deeds of an ancestor, Elma 'Mopad, who is mentioned in The Ascension of Morheka. The stones are to0 precisely set to have been laid down so rapidly, however, and they form a complex geometric shape that would have taken months, if not years, or planning to form. The most likely reason is that it was laid as the equivalent of a human Time Capsule - buried by ancestors to educate their descendants on their ways of life, their knowledge, and theirbeliefs. Indeed, Morhekan tradition lays much emphasis on the writing down and passing down of knowledge from parents to their children, to remind them that the ways of the past are not all worth rejecting. It may be that the Morhekan Codex is the ultimate extent to which the Morhekan people sought to pass their experience down. Discovery Originally, the site of the Codex was owned by a religious sect "Devotees of Sanghelios," modelled after and later reformed into the Cult of Quenyathar, which worshipped the Forerunners in the manner of the pre-Covenant Sangheili. This sect was persecuted during the Burning Crusade Against Heresy approximately five hundred years ago, and its followers scattered or slaughtered. Afterwards, the land fell to the Soitnam family, who rented it out to peasant farmers. Reports of strange objects being uncovered were paid no heed until three hundred years ago, when the Soitnam family, then in dire financial straits, were reabsorbed into the Morhekan Sovereign-State, and the extensive archaeological files of the Morheka began to turn up similar occurances. Over the next two hundred years, fourteen Memory Capsules were uncovered and transported to the Morhekan Library, where scholars worked to unlock their contents. Such work had proved fruitless until recently, when newly discovered knowledge of the Forerunners allowed the Library employees to unlock the first of fourteen stones. It was this stone that allowed the Library to find the other Codex stones, though the sudden and violent outbreak of civil war within the Covenant threw the planet into chaos as it fought to repel the San'Shyuum and Jiralhanae occupiers from sacred soil. Afterwards, efforts were focussed on rebuilding the planet, with few resources to spare for archaeology. UNSC Xenoarchaeologists offered their expertise to uncover and decipher the relics, in exchange for improved diplomatic relations and a small exchange of goods and technologies. With Sanghelios in such chaos, and the need to strengthen ties to any allies the Sangheili possessed, the Kaidon of Morheka, Qur'a Morhek, agreed readily. Over the next six months, Human and Sangheili worked to locate and excavate all four thousand memory stones, and work began on decoding it. While less than seven have been fully decoded, with information often shared between many stones to open a single message or file, a few files have been pieced together. Contents The Morheka Saga Composed by the famous poet Juno 'Joralan, from the Trinity of Light, the Morheka Saga is an epic Sangheili opera telling three key areas of Morhekan history - its foundation as a colony of the State of Vadam and its subsequent independance; The Beggars Covenant, telling of the invasion of the Mopad Confederacy and installation of a puppet-ruler, and the return of the rightful heir to restore Morhekan sovereignty; and The Tale of Morheka The Great, a collection of ballads recalling the legendary exploits of Morheka's founding figure. Foundation Cycle The Foundation Cycle is the earliest tale of the foundation of the state that would later become known as Morheka. Driven from their homeland of Vadam, a number of Sangheili families crossed the tumultuous waves of the sea to reach the continent of Kaaran, founding the first settlement. Originally a colony of Vadam, the colonists resented the absolute authority wielded by the Vadam Kaidon without any representation among the Council of Elders, and rebelled. Unable to send adequate troops to retain control of the colony, and with numerous sympathetic voices of dissent at home, Vadam was forced to allow the colony independence. In the place of a single Kaidon, the families elected two permanent Kaidons, ruling a Clan Conclave, to rule the land. The Beggars Covenant Cycle Taking place long after the fall of the twin-Kaidon system, and the implementation of the cycle of the clans, the Beggars Covenant tells of the fall of the last Cycle Kaidon to the usurping forces from the Mopad Confederacy, the exile of his family, and the subjugation of the nation as a puppet-state of Mopad. Eventually, the last living heir of the former rightful Kaidon returns, assassinating the ururpers, and leading the Morhekan people to rise up in rebellion against Mopad, ending thirty Cycles of occupation and restoring its sovereignty. The tale is also the only story that features Morheka the Great as a secondary character, and may perhaps be the truest account of the founder of the modern Sovereign-State of Morheka. The Morheka the Great Cycle A collection of ballads recounting famous legends of Morheka the Great, the majority of these are derivatives of local legends of past heroes that have been altered to feature the founder. Tales such as his slaying of the Jabberwock of Slaitan, or the Thousand Assassins, are likely merely myth, but others, such as his wooing of Juno ‘Xoram, may have a grain of truth to them. Given the reverence that Morhekans hold their founder in, it is difficult to separate the history from the myth, and many believe that this is as it should be. But the legend of him diving the bottom of a lake, discovering a Forerunner relic telling him of a sacred site known as the Labyrinth, rings true on many levels, not least because two famous Sangheili prophets, Tana ‘Satsunar and Thoth ‘Keltam, both recall discovering that same relic. Empire Lament For An Empire Set during the collapse of the Morhekan Empire, the poem was written by Salla ‘Morhek as the states that would form the Trinity of Light seceded from the Empire, taking with them a large proportion of land and citizens, as well as sympathetic Legions. The lamentation itself is that the corruption of certain Kaidons brought this upon itself, and concludes that war shall engulf the continent “as brother fights brother”. In fact, the Trinity and the Morhekan Remnant would later join forces to repel a Mopad incursion, a history-changing move that has seen a period of unbroken peace descend upon the continent. Deaths Dream Kingdom The only known text written during the imprisonment of Juno 'Joralan by Mopadan soldiers, the work describes her despair at the murder of her lover, Xera 'Kotarq, and her fervent hope that she will join him in the afterlife to await godhood. It may be that she held some beliefs that are similar to the Prophet's beliefs of the Great Journey, a remarkable coincidence. During her imprisonment, Juno contemplated suicide to deny her captors the chance to torture her for information or their own pleasure, but was rescued by the warriors of the R'runu Warrior Creche in a daring night raid before that became neccessary, and would record many of the notable events of the war - the Bitter Winter, the Rout at Quenyathar, and the Charge of the Kr'Rana Light Brigade, eventually becoming the mate of Mata 'Morhek, the last of the Kaidons of the Empire Dynasty. Her love for Xera endured however, though her life with Mata was long and amiable, both regarding each more as companions rather than lovers. Religious The Labyrinth Scrolls Though collections of data, it is likely that the Labyrinth Scrolls files are merely transcriptions of earlier texts, written on primitive paper records, derived from Forerunner relics. They incorporate many of the themes of the Ark Witnesses into them, and may be the most complete pre-2552 account of the Halo Array as a whole, describing Shield Worlds, the Ark, and a structure known as the Labyrinth. Most intriguing is a passage that claims to be a direct translation of the glyphs that were recovered from a Forerunner artefact located at the bottom of a dried up lake, describing the protectors of the Labyrinth. The Arks Witnesses Although their direct sources can never be definitely ascertained, it is likely that these two Sangheili prophecy-tellers were inspired by a Forerunner artefact, one also encountered by Morhek the Great, describing the 'Satsunar's Prophecy Supposedly the last words delivered by the Sangheili prophet Tana ‘Satsunar, he claimed that he had received devine inspiration from angels sent by the Forerunners. He never elaborated upon how he had received the message, and took the secret to his grave after taking a vow of silence, making the last of his prophesies as written texts. Quenyathar A brief history of the Cult of Quenyathar, it recounts its formation as a religious offshoot of the original local religious and its persecution under Morheka the Cruel. It mentions nothing of its dissolution under the Prophets, so predates the Writ of Union. There is a short description of the ruins that the cult guarded, but excavation and examination of it by the Prophets have long ago turned up most of the surprises laid by the Cult. It claims that the ruins go straight to the centre of Sanghelios, but this has been determined to be exaggeration by seismological and geological analyses. There does seem to be a number of chambers that the Prophets overlooked, but these are too deep to be easily accessible. The Ark Scripture Long regarded as apocryphical, a creation by overzealous interpretations of obscure Forerunner relics, The Ark Scripture is the oldest known description of other parts of the Halo Array other than the Halo Installations themselves. Its description of a "Sharpened Shield" has long been debated by scholars arguing for its inclusion, ranging from a condemnation of violence to a metaphorical artefact meant to highlight the Forerunners protection of their followers from heresy. The comparitively recent discovery of its true meaning, referring to Shield Worlds, has had a dramatic effect on all previously apocryphal canon, and Sangheili scholars must sort through the thousands of rejected treatises and passages to decide upon a new set of religious canon. Post-Covenant The Writ of Union The oldest recording of the Covenant Writ of Union, the textual data was accompanied by an audio recitation by both San'Shyuum and Sangheili choirs, and is likely to be the original ratification of the alliance between the Sangheili and the San'Shyuum. Many attempts by Sangheili political radicals to destroy the artefact have been rebuffed by the Morhekan State's guards, despite pressure from even other Kaidons to destroy it as a symbol of the Sangheili's contempt for blindly following the Covenant. Kaidon Qur'a has instead argued that it be kept safe, as a reminder of the path that zealotry has led the Sangheili down. The Kaidons Plea Added by a Kaidon of Morheka after it recognised the legitimacy of the Covenant, it is likely that the author was Dego ‘Morhekee, a figure noted for his attempts to preserve much of Morheka’s native culture and religious beliefs, and his sympathies for the Cult of Quenyathar. Morhekanan Sayings